Stranger Things Have Happened
by ESCotLoE
Summary: McKay has a friend? Huh, How bout that? An outsiders view on the friendship of Mckay and Sheppard


This story is something I've had floating around for a while now – I would add a bit to it every now and then.

Its set about 6 months after The Siege, on Earth – with a bit of a crossover.

As usual – I don't own any of the characters portrayed in this fic – it's just a harmless bit of fun.

I would like to thank my wonderful beta, Reyson, for her assistance with making this fic fit for reading. If you haven't read her stuff – then do so.

* * *

Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter tried not to huff her irritation too loudly. She had noticed that doing that tended to launch the other occupant of the room into another verbal diatribe on how she should be grateful that he took time out of his holiday to come and help her out.

"…Of course that doesn't mean that you were doing it wrong exactly…" Dr Rodney McKay droned on.

McKay had not gotten any easier to handle in his year and a half in another galaxy. If anything, he had become more infuriating due to his recent near death experience during the siege on Atlantis and various other events that he would recount endless times… in explicit detail.

The Atlantis expedition had been back in contact with the SGC for over six months and Dr Weir had decreed that every member should have regular R&R back on Earth. This particular group included a number of the scientists and military personnel including the illustrious Dr McKay and Colonel Sheppard.

They had three weeks to entertain themselves on Earth before they were due to ship back out on the Daedalus. Samantha sighed, it was only day two and already McKay had insulted most of her science staff.

"…It just means that you need to change this here and …" Rodney trailed off.

All of a sudden a hand waved in front of her face. She jerked back and looked up at the most annoying man in two galaxies.

"Are you even listening to me Colonel?" Rodney asked, irritation written plainly on his face. "Of course you're not, you're off with the fairies. Lucky I came back when I did."

"McKay, you came back for a holiday," Samantha said, exasperated, "don't you have something better planned than hanging around my lab all day?"

"Of course I do," Rodney sounded indignant, "First I'm going to see if my next door neighbour has managed to keep my cat alive, and then I'm going to catch up on every TV episode that I've missed. I just thought, since I'm here, I might catch up on a few things around the SGC"

Just as she was about to reply to that…

"Hey Rodney? You in here?" Sam heard yelling from the hallway outside her lab.

Before McKay was able to answer, the door burst open and Colonel Sheppard strode in with a happy grin on his face. His eyes lit up when he spotted Rodney.

"Hey McKay" he said with a smirk, looking around the room and sobering a little when he saw Sam. "Colonel" he acknowledged giving her a mock salute.

Sam smiled back and nodded in greeting.

Rodney smiled back and said "Hey Colonel, what brings you here? I would have thought you would have found yourself a nice beach or a bar by now."

"Ah, well I was on my way, but then Daniel asked me to take a look at a few ancient artifacts that he had picked up. It seemed he couldn't get anyone else to activate them."

It was at that moment that Sam noticed a bemused looking Daniel just inside the doorway. She nodded a greeting.

"Good for you Colonel"

"And guess what I found in a little box on a back shelf?" Sheppard pulled open his jacket to reveal a little green jewel stuck to his chest.

Sam looked to Daniel for explanation. He shrugged, just as confused as she was apparently.

"Oh, no way!"

"Yes way!"

Sam was thoroughly confused at this point "Okay guys, what's going on? What is that?"

Rodney ignored her, keeping his eyes on Sheppard. "Are you sure?" Rodney looked a little uncertain.

"Yeah, I checked." Sheppard said casually.

"So you want me to…?" Rodney still looked unsure.

"Yeah, c'mon it'll be fun" Sheppard reassured.

At this point both Sam and Daniel wore matching confused expressions. Obviously the two men had some sort of connection that allowed them to say a lot more to each other with out saying the words. Sam realized that she was shocked that McKay would have a friend that he was close enough to be able to do that with.

McKay shrugged and made his way over to where he had left his bag of gear, he picked it up off the floor and brought it over to the lab bench that they were standing around. He rummaged around in it for a minute or two before pulling out his 9mm pistol. Without hesitation McKay whipped it around and promptly shot Sheppard in the chest.

Sam's jaw dropped to the floor, as did Daniel's. She was about to rush over to aid Colonel Sheppard when she realized he was still standing upright, slightly dazed look on his face.

All of a sudden he shook his head a little and looked up at McKay. "Holy shit Rodney! Did you have to shoot me in the chest? I only shot you in the leg!"

"Oh come on," Rodney said, sounding irritated, "it's not like it really matters where I shoot you."

"A little warning next time, please."

"Oh yeah… 'Hey Sheppard, heads up…bang' Yep, I see that happening." Rodney snarked.

"What the hell is going on!" Sam yelled to stop the argument she saw coming.

Both men jumped, obviously too involved in their own little discussion to remember that there were other people in the room.

"It's a personal shield device…" Sheppard began the explanation.

"We found one early on in the expedition…" Rodney interrupted.

"Yeah, Rodney tried it on…" Sheppard grinned.

"And then he shot me…" Rodney beamed proudly.

"And pushed him off a balcony…" Sheppard beamed even wider.

"Then it got drained of power…" Rodney seemed quite disappointed.

"When he went into this freaky energy thingy…" Sheppard still looked proud.

"I wish you wouldn't call it that" Rodney turned his annoyed gaze to Sheppard.

"But that's what it is" Sheppard countered.

Sam watched the two finish each other's sentences like she was watching a tennis match. It was beyond weird. These two seemed so different it was hard to believe that they could ever be friends. What really blew her over was the trust that they had in each other. Obviously Sheppard trusted McKay enough to let the man shoot him. And McKay trusted Sheppard enough to do so. That was a lot of faith to place in another person's hands.

"Let's go get some lunch," Sheppard skillfully changed the topic right as Rodney was about to start a rant. "I'm starved"

"You'll have to take that thing off if you want to eat" Rodney crossed his arms with a smug grin.

Sheppard screwed up his face a little, like he was concentrating, then the green jewel went dark and dropped off his chest. Catching it, he grinned broadly at McKay. "No problem."

McKay's smug grin slipped into a grimace. "I hate you, you know that right?"

"Yeah, I know," Sheppard said while giving McKay a push towards the door, "I hate you too."

Daniel leaned over and tapped the bottom of Sam's chin causing her to snap her mouth shut. He crossed his arms together and stared at the departing figures with a little frown. "Er, Sam… what just happened there?"

Sam shook her head. "I'm still trying to figure that out… but I think we just witnessed Rodney and Sheppard…"

"Behaving like best friends?" Daniel cut in.

Sam Smiled. "Yeah, something like that."

"O-kaaaay… I thought you said McKay didn't have any friends" He said in a puzzled tone.

"Well I guess stranger things have happened." Sam replied.

Sam smiled made her way to the door to watch silently as the pair headed off towards the mess hall, listening to the voices drifting back.

"Ok, what do you think would happen if I fell 50 stories down the elevator shaft?"

"I think you'd bounce."

"Cool."

* * *

As always, love the reviews. Let me know what you think. 


End file.
